1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an image forming apparatus incorporating an image reading device, a printer device, a telecommunication device, and the like.
2. Description of the Related Art
Nowadays an intelligent plane paper copy machine (hereinafter referred to as intelligent PPC) capable of not only reading an image of a document and copying the image but also transmitting the image to a remote facsimile apparatus through a telecommunication line, is proposed.
This type of intelligent PPC includes a reading device for transmitting image data to a facsimile apparatus, a printer apparatus, an information storing apparatus, or the like, and a printer device for forming an image based on image data supplied from an external device such as a host computer and a wordprocessor, or the like. They can be operated alone or in combination.
The intelligent PPC has an image reading unit for reading image data of a document, a signal converting unit for converting the image data read by the image reading unit into an electrical signal, an image forming unit for forming an image based on the image data read by the image reading unit, a paper feeding unit for feeding paper therein and feeding the paper to which the formed image is transferred, outside the PPC, and a control unit for energizing the units.
The image reading unit reads image data of a document as intensity of light, converts the image data into an electrical signal through a photoelectric conversion element, and stores the electrical signal in a memory.
The signal converting unit converts the electrical signal stored in the memory into bit map data (copy signal) used for forming an image of the document by means of the image forming unit and parallel or serial data (encoded data) which is to be transmitted via the telecommunication line.
The image forming unit forms an image on a photosensitive body in response to the copy signal generated by the signal converting unit and transfers it to paper fed by the paper feeding unit.
The control unit performs as a reading device for reading numeric data such as the number of copies, a magnification, and a facsimile number of a destination. The control unit is capable of selecting one of various modes for performing operations of the reading device, the facsimile apparatus, and the printer device independently or simultaneously and receives control signals for interrupting the operations through a control panel, thereby controlling the entire operation of the intelligent PPC.
However, a generally-used intelligent PPC is initialized in a copy mode to serve as a copying machine when power is on. If, therefore, the intelligent PPC is used as a facsimile apparatus, the copy mode has to be switched to a facsimile mode by using a mode selection key or the like.
There is a strong possibility that the intelligent PPC will be operated in the facsimile mode though it is set in the copy mode and, in this case, an undesired copy is obtained. This causes drawbacks wherein copying sheets and toners are wasted and protective secret information is supplied (left) as hard copy. Furthermore, it causes drawbacks wherein a user has to wait for a long time when his or her preceding user has made a mistake, thereby decreasing in operation efficiency.